The week that was Dec. 14-20

IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR … GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE. He outlined a sensible framework for considering public education in light of the state Supreme Court’s finding that the legislature’s work didn’t pass constitutional muster. He dared to mention consolidation and a rational pay scale for superintendents. (He tarnished this sparkling performance with nonsense. He said he wasn’t sure the legislature needed to meet in special session. Of course it must.)

ATTORNEY GENERAL MIKE BEEBE. More learned in the law and legislating than just about anybody else in elective office, he licked his wounds from losing the state’s argument in the Lake View school case and said simply that the legislature had work to do to get it right.

BUREAUCRACY. The Arkansas State University Board of Trustees wants to make President Les Wyatt the head of the ASU “system,” which includes three two-year community colleges and the college in Jonesboro, and hire a chancellor for the Jonesboro campus. Featherbedding just like big brother UA.

IT WAS A BAD WEEK FOR …

The AMERICAN WAY. President George Bush confessed that his administration has been spying on American citizens without a warrant and he’s not the least apologetic. He says he can do whatever he wants, Constitution be damned, in the name of the war on terrorism. Probably even lie about sex.

ASA HUTCHINSON. The former Homeland Security official and gubernatorial aspirant joins the Republican jackboots who say it is unpatriotic to ask questions about spying on American citizens.

ENTERGY ARKANSAS CUSTOMERS. We’ve been FERCed again. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Arkansas ratepayers must start paying more to ease the pain on Louisiana customers for bad investments by their Entergy affiliate.

The STATE LEGISLATURE. The braying about the Supreme Court decision explained 1) they don’t understand the law and 2) they still don’t get their many failures in improving public education.

The Arkansas Democratic Party has waded hip-deep (maybe over its head) into the suddenly hot issue of Confederate statuary. It has called for removal of such monuments to museums or private places.

Another member of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's senior staff is heading for the exit. Kelly Eichler, senior advisor for criminal justice (and a Hutchinson appointee to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees) has given notice she'll be leaving in a couple of weeks.

Also, drifting away from trump, Hudson's downfall at ASU and more.

Most Shared

Gospel and R&B singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples, who has been inspiring fans with gospel-inflected freedom songs like "I'll Take You There" and "March Up Freedom's Highway" and the poignant "Oh What a Feeling" will come to Little Rock for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High.

Everything that Donald Trump does — make that everything that he says — is calculated to thrill his lustiest disciples. But he is discovering that what was brilliant for a politician is a miscalculation for a president, because it deepens the chasm between him and most Americans.

Watching the Charlottesville spectacle from halfway across the country, I confess that my first instinct was to raillery. Vanilla ISIS, somebody called this mob of would-be Nazis. A parade of love-deprived nerds marching bravely out of their parents' basements carrying tiki torches from Home Depot.